Corrie and I love to bike
I sat a lot this weekend.
Corrie and I along with 7 other from our cycling group had planned to
ride CHAFE. This ride is a fund raiser for the panhandle
education alliance in the Sandpoint ID area.
Corrie and I have riden this ride for the last three years and we both
feel it is worth the trip. The ride goes
around beautiful Lake Pend Oreille, and the
course is beautiful this time of
year.
As a cyclist/runner we all make choices about the rides and
runs we do. We look at locations,
matching our ability with the course and of course the weather. Usually it’s an easy choice. When you wake up and put on your shoes you
choose ride or no ride. Pouring rain
usually keeps most of us on the couch rather than riding. We all can understand choices when you add a
planned and paid for ride or run. If you have put enough planning in the event
you can easily choose to at least give the run/ride a start. Pouring rain and a forecast of more can
change your plans. Sometimes it’s hard
to make a decision.
My plan this year was to ride the 80 mi option with Donna
Callahan and Jennifer Block from our TRC group.
We had great fun building up to this ride. We all felt ready for the distance.
My choices where made a bit easier by my stupid choice to
try texting while going down stairs! My dear husband loves to tease me about
multitasking and now he has more opportunity to point out my many flaws. “Pay attention Linda”, he frequently reminds
me. So, my sprained ankle should have
made it easy for me to choose to ride or not.
No, think again. I crashed on my bike in the parking lot. Wrong choice. I’m a soon to be
60 yr. old runner/biker who’ll ride/run any chance I get. Long distance, hills, bad weather, sore ankles, hardly ever
holds me back. I have found
running/biking to be my connection to living as a full human being. I will always make the choice to
run/bike. Life is best experienced while
being part of your surroundings in an active way. The result of my attempts to bike with a
sprained ankle, even in the parking lot left me with few choices.
I watched CHAFE this year, but still enjoyed the ride. I choose to consider my entry fee/donation to
be worth the cost. I found out that the
charity for the ride makes over $100,000 for early childhood education in this
part of Idaho. What a great way to help
this great cause. How can I not feel like
this was a good use of my $$.
I had a great weekend in a beautiful part of ID. I contributed to a good cause. I got a chance to meet with good friends who
enjoy biking and I continue to learn lessons in this wonderful experience of
life. So, to all my friends: don’t text
while going down stairs and don’t try to ride a bike with a purse in your
hands. You’d think I would have learned
that in 60 yrs. But I get it now!!!
